Do your thing

For nearly thirty years, I’ve had this quote to memory: ‘Whatever you can do, or think you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.’ Thanks to Goethe for that one (and to JB who alerted me to it). It’s pertinent on so many levels. 

For most of my life, despite any and all appearances to the contrary, I’ve not been conscious or clear what ‘my thing’ is. I’ve been running around in a fog (never a great idea, you get all sorts of knocks), trying to fathom what I’m ‘supposed to be doing with my life’. I have been seeking answers. Where does that ‘supposed’ come from…? It's a horrid word - lives on the same shelf as 'should' and can be very confusing. It prevents my cells connecting to the essence of being alive. 

© Maggie Sawkins 2014 All rights reserved
My art work on Etsy

Early on in my journey, I truly felt I was ‘damaged goods’ and therefore needed a great deal of mending. No fun. On one of the workshops I undertook in my search, we were invited to ‘go and be with a tree’. This was not any hippie, new-age session but instead a lesson on registering what it means to be here… what purpose do we have as souls on this earth at this point?

I recall that it was a challenge to do this… to sit and ‘be’ with a tree. I knew of tree-hugging and to this day I touch them as I go past, especially the saplings, encouraging them on their way. I got from taking part in that exercise, this truth: that the tree (to the best of our knowledge) doesn’t spend its day worrying about the what, how, when and more importantly why, it is growing and changing. 

It just exists, following its nature to be it's particular species of tree and undergo the cycles of the seasons; not to question 'am I doing it properly, maybe I should be a rosebush or a pigeon…' It simply embodies its essence: juices, cells and the potential to become tall or have blossom, conkers or berries as its DNA dictates. And as far as I’m aware, it doesn’t ever ‘try’ to do any of it at any other speed than the organism that it is, allows. It is pre-programmed with this unfolding, flowering, developing  roots and branches all in good time. And it bends and sometimes breaks with the weather, the seasons and with any kid that jumps on its branches before they are strong enough to bear that kind of thing. 

So in sitting with myself and being, I begin to find a more mindful way of living, moment at a time. I develop discernment about what makes my heart sing, where I am in my element (Thanks Ken Robinson). This activity (of lack of), helps me to desist from questioning. I resign repeatedly from 'Figuring-it-out-Anonymous'. In the simplicity I look to do what I can do, to be who I truly am. That seems to me the boldest, most powerful thing I can begin to do. The genius of being who you are x